Rapper Is Hungry For His Own Success

Music - RECORDS

July 16, 2004|By Jim Abbott, Sentinel Pop Music Critic

*** Lloyd Banks, The Hunger for More (Interscope/G Unit): Everything about this debut album points obviously to the multiplatinum formula behind 50 Cent, from the scowling, streetwise cover to the heavy gangsta beats, clicking triggers and graphic descriptions of urban hardship.

As a member of G Unit crew, Banks was a featured performer in 50's blockbuster Get Rich or Die Tryin' and on G Unit's Beg For Mercy. Nothing on his first solo effort will disappoint fans of those albums, but it doesn't elevate him above the pack either.

"Ain't No Click" opens with gravely dramatic strings that yield to a lethargic beat accented by the occasional tolling of mournful bells. With rhymes about "a clip filled with hollows"' and "Eminem money added to my escrow," it's a picture of the rapper's inner circle that's no more than a cliche.

Fortunately, there are moments when Hunger shows that Banks can break away from the sludgy rhythms that so often mark the G Unit style. A swirl- ing cheesy keyboard riff injects "Playboy"' with a welcome dose of caffeine. Still, one could do without the lengthy exhortation to "put your hands up," which is tiresome and meaningless.

Yet the album gains strength as it goes along. The rumbling "Warrior"' is a lean, honest-sounding reflection on rising out of a tough street life: "I figure I'm doing good, I made it out of the 'hood," Banks intones, adding "I ain't never scared"' as the song's title repeats underneath his voice like a mantra.

Elsewhere, there's the requisite songs about bragging ("I'm So Fly"), partying ("I Get High") and surviving ("When the Chips Are Down"'). Each is delivered with a mixture of simmering tension and humor, but not enough of the latter.

There's a well-placed cameo by 50 Cent and Snoop Dogg on "I Get High,"' which relies on a loopy melody line in the chorus. Eminem guests with 50 and Nate Dogg on "Warrior Part 2," which revisits that theme with a nice funky edge.

Marshall Mathers also was the co-writer of the album's most evocative song. Framed against a lonely piano and drums that crack like gunshots, "Til the End" is a glimpse of drugs and crime that's poignant at point-blank range.

While other rappers, even 50 Cent, turn such tales into an act, Banks manages in his best moments to make them sound real.